While Ren Dejing was making plans for his future, in Guanzhong, the Liberation Army was advancing vigorously, moving quickly, constantly defeating the local garrison of the Jin Army, and winning continuously.
On the other hand, the Jin Army was at a loss and unable to resist. Facing the rapid advance of the Liberation Army, the Jurchen soldiers, who were once invincible in the world, were defeated like a mountain and were as fragile and powerless as a newborn lamb.
On the north road, Su Haisheng led the army and marched directly to Zhenrong Prefecture after conquering Qingyang Prefecture and Yan'an Prefecture, preparing for a final decisive battle with the 20,000 Jin troops gathered in Zhenrong Prefecture.
Pure military issues only require pure military means to solve, but when it comes to violence - I'm sorry, the Liberation Army said, in this era, you are all rubbish.
In this era, the Liberation Army is the strongest army on the East Asian continent, bar none.
Everyone here is rubbish!
The south road is a bit troublesome.
But the main problem was not with the Liberation Army itself, but with Zhang Zhongyan and the 40,000 troops he commanded.
Zhang Zhongyan's appearance outside Chang'an City accelerated the collapse of the Jin Army in the city, which can be regarded as a contribution to the capture of Chang'an City, so Zhang Yuejing was quite grateful to Zhang Zhongyan at first.
However, a few days after the Liberation Army captured Chang'an, a large number of refugees suddenly appeared outside the city, almost following Zhang Zhongyan's army, and they all gathered towards Chang'an City.
They were dragging their families with them, their clothes were ragged, and they were hungry. They asked the Liberation Army in Chang'an City for food, which made Zhang Yuejing and the generals of the Liberation Army look confused.
What's happening here?
After some inquiring, they found out that Zhang Zhongyan's army gave full play to the fine traditions of the traditional feudal army on its way to Chang'an City, beating, smashing, looting, and burning without missing a beat, and looted all the villages and towns along the way that were not defended in time.
Not only did he rob, but he also killed people, plundered women, set fire to villages, and destroyed fields. He committed all kinds of evil, perfectly implementing the saying "The conduct of a bandit is like a comb, the conduct of a soldier is like a gourd, and the conduct of an official is like a shave."
For ordinary people, soldiers and officials are much more terrifying than bandits.
These refugees who had lost their livelihood gathered locally and tried to seek help from the local county, but all intact cities closed their gates and were unwilling to let the refugees enter.
The refugees were turned away and not allowed to enter, and they were angry. In order to avoid armed conflicts, the local officials felt that Zhang Zhongyan had to solve the problems caused by Zhang Zhongyan, so he told them that there was food in Chang'an and asked them to go to Chang'an.
Anyway, Zhang Zhongyan went to Chang'an.
In this way, those who are willing to go to Chang'an can go to Chang'an, and those who are unwilling to go to Chang'an and depend on the local area for life and death can send troops to attack them and drive them towards Chang'an.
The refugees were hungry and unarmed. If they were not large-scale, they would not be a match for the small local armed forces. They could only be forced to move towards Chang'an City.
So a huge team of refugees dragged their families and staggered towards Chang'an. Many people died of exhaustion, starvation, and illness along the way. Those who survived to arrive in Chang'an were all sallow and thin, as if they could be blown down by a gust of wind. .
Their appearance was really miserable, so the soldiers of the Liberation Army spontaneously took out their own rations to cook porridge for them, so that they could fill their stomachs and prevent them from starving to death.
Zhang Yuejing was so angry after receiving the report from his subordinates that he almost drew his sword to chop Zhang Zhongyan.
But as the commander-in-chief of the entire army, Zhang Yuejing forcibly controlled his emotions.
He resisted the urge to settle accounts with Zhang Zhongyan, thinking that he could not fall out with Zhang Zhongyan now, so he could only summon his generals and secretaries to discuss how to deal with this matter.
“Preliminary statistics put the number of refugees at 50,000 to 60,000. They are a large number and are crying out for food. Their mental state is generally not good. If they are not careful, they can easily trigger a civil commotion.
According to them, the county governments along the way did not want to take responsibility and drove them to Chang'an City. Now that they have finally arrived in Chang'an, they do not want to leave anyway, and we cannot just watch them starve to death. "
Su Jianian, the secretary of the trapped army, reported the specific situation he had at the meeting with a look of helplessness.
The venue fell into silence for a while.
After a while, Zhou Zhi slammed the table and said angrily: "Since we can take care of Guanzhong on our own, we shouldn't accept Zhang Zhongyan's surrender! This thief fails more than he succeeds and fails more than he does! Commander, as long as you give the order, I will kill him tonight Take off Zhang Zhongyan’s head and give it to you.”
Zhou Zhi was full of murderous intent, with a fierce expression on his face as if he wanted to kill Zhang Zhongyan.
Chen Qiaoshan, an old comrade-in-arms, quickly stepped forward to soothe his mood.
"The decision to accept Zhang Zhongyan was made by the Central Capital and by Su Shuai. It is the bounden duty of soldiers to execute orders. We must not violate Su Shuai's orders! And Zhang Zhongyan did help us a lot. He directly shook the Chang'an garrison. Determination, if it weren’t for him, it would have taken us more days and more troops to capture Chang’an City, and this is also a fact.”
"But what he has done now has seriously affected the situation in Guanzhong!"
Zhou Zhi said loudly: "His troops burned, killed and looted all the way, which seriously affected the situation in the various states and our future management of Guanzhong! Compared with his usefulness, the harm is obviously greater! This matter violates our liberation The bottom line of the army has been reached, and we cannot let him go no matter what! Commander, please ask Commander Su to get rid of Zhang Zhongyan! To reassure the people!"
Yan Xinghai, secretary of the enemy-breaking army, shook his head and sighed after hearing this.
"If we had not accepted him early on, we would have eliminated him. Now that we have accepted him, and to get rid of him again would be like crossing the river and burning the bridge. It would easily arouse the fear of the civil and military officials of the Jin Kingdom who had surrendered in Guanzhong, and it would prompt them to rebel again, which is not good for us. The need to stabilize the situation in Guanzhong is extremely unfavorable and cannot be done.”
"This...this is nothing!"
Zhou Zhi sat down angrily.
He also knows that the overall situation is important, so he doesn't dare to mess around.
Zhang Yuejing, who had been silent, looked at Zhou Zhi's angry look, shook his head helplessly, and said: "We are not willing to see such a thing happen, but Su Shuai accepted Zhang Zhongyan because he wanted to use Zhang Zhongyan's reputation to promote The rapid descent of civil and military forces in Guanzhong will help us capture Guanzhong faster."
Zhang Yuejing pointed to the topographic map of Guanzhong behind him and said: "Guanzhong is not the Central Plains. It is surrounded by highlands on all sides and the Guanzhong Plain. Except for the Guanzhong Plain, there are dangerous terrains on all sides, and it borders the Xia Kingdom and the Song Kingdom. If the war drags on for a long time, I don’t know what variables will arise.
What Su Shuai is most worried about is that the state capitals along the border with dangerous terrain will surrender to Xia and Song because of our efforts to kill them all. At that time, Xia and Song will be dragged into the overall situation in Guanzhong, and the situation will be even more difficult to handle. So Su Shuai thought, By accepting Zhang Zhongyan, the local civil and military forces in Guanzhong can be quickly defeated by me, without considering the Song and Xia countries. "
"Do we need to be afraid of them?"
Zhou Zhi said dissatisfied: "If Song and Xia dare to invade the country, we absolutely do not need to show mercy! If the army attacks, can Song and Xia stop it?"
"That's what I said, but now is not the time. Guanzhong is unstable, and we are enemies of Song and Xia. This has added many variables. The enemy is defending the dangerous terrain and is our enemy. Is this the situation we want to see? "
When Zhang Yuejing said this, Zhou Zhi thought about it for a while, but he didn't say it out loud.
Seeing that Zhou Zhi stopped talking, Zhang Yuejing said slowly: "Although there are some problems now, Zhang Zhongyan can allow us to quickly occupy important military strongholds along the border, complete the military defense of Song and Xia, and completely engulf Guanzhong.
Only when Guanzhong eats it, stabilizes the situation in Guanzhong, and appeases the refugees, will we have room to settle accounts. This is the forbearance we must do before we can achieve great things. We are already strong, and more toughness will not do it. Bringing more revenue will have the opposite effect. "
Everyone in the meeting didn't speak for a long time, obviously he had been convinced by Zhang Yuejing.
Seeing this situation, Zhang Yuejing realized that the internal situation was stable, so he said: "I will handle this matter. Don't interfere, don't have any contact with Zhang Zhongyan, and don't publicly say anything about him. At this time, he is The most sensitive is also the most afraid, understand?”
Everyone looked at me and I looked at you, and finally nodded helplessly.
